


table for two

by hellsteeth



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29791422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellsteeth/pseuds/hellsteeth
Summary: A series of vignettes regarding Mulder and Scully's visits to diners across America
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	table for two

She orders a salad and a water, with lemon please, thank you, and he points to a picture of a greasy burger on the front of the plastic menu for himself. While they wait for their food, she sheds her blazer and massages the two symmetrical spots of the bridge of her nose where her glasses had dug into the skin during the flight to Oregon.

The bell above the door of the little diner chimes every few minutes as fellow travelers, families with small children and truckers and worn-out businesspeople, file in and slide into plastic booths.

Mulder bounces his leg and taps his fingers on the sticky table, the pent-up energy from hours of sitting in a car being released from his body like pressurized steam. Through the stubborn pieces of hair that hang over his forehead, he observes the agent sitting across from him as she examines her nails and sighs tiredly.

He can sympathize with her on that front, at least. Though he’d strategically found the least uncomfortable way to fold his tall body into the plane, sleep had been far down on his mental to-do list. Instead, he’d let the case details swirl around the ether of his consciousness, looking for patterns and anachronisms that he may have missed, all the while stealing glances at Scully while she’d white-knuckled her way through turbulence and read over the case notes.

This case, their first case as partners, weighs heavily on his shoulders, especially considering it could mean for the future of his work. Even the word _partners_ still feels unnatural, for partners are meant to trust one another, and it's clear that they both view each other with all the trust and acceptance of wounded animals, careful and suspicious and circling one another from a distance. It’s been too long since he’s had a partner, much less one sent to debunk his work, and he can only flex his social skills pathetically, the atrophied muscles that they are. Too little trust and they might never solve this case, too much and this may be the last x-files case he ever solves.

Scully had brought the case file in from the rental car, because of _course_ she had, and it sits open on the table in front of her. Her manicured pointer finger traces autopsy pictures as she mouths words silently to herself. Mulder remembers being on the receiving end of an equally analytical gaze in the basement office yesterday and shivers. Her cool blue eyes flit up to meet him before landing back on the page before her, though Mulder is sure that the slight upturn of her lips hadn’t been there a few moments ago.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! as always, feel free to drop a comment and let me know what you think
> 
> find me on tumblr @ dr-scuhlly


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